


Tense

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Ficlet, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre-Canon, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-07
Updated: 2020-07-07
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25136833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: Pearl wonders when they started talking about the War in the past tense.
Relationships: Garnet & Pearl (Steven Universe), Pearl & Rose Quartz (Steven Universe)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 61





	Tense

Pearl wonders when they started talking about the War in the past tense.

They never used to. Why would they? The War was ongoing, even after the objective had changed, when the opponent had changed—because, she supposes, there is no opponent, now, not as such—there’s damage to heal, and scars to clean up, and Gems—friends as well as former enemies—turned into monsters who don’t _know_ themselves, and they have to _contain_ them if they can’t heal them, and containing looks like fighting…

They’re still fighting. Every cycle, again. Pearl draws her sword, and failing that, a spear. Throws herself in front of Rose—(sometimes to protect her from an attack, sometimes to keep her from seeing who this particular abomination had been, which of their friends, which one of Rose’s own soldiers, on either side of the War)—just as she had since they started. 

And it’s not until centuries later that it strikes her, this change in tense, reverberates down her form like the crack of the battle axes or the swords had, in seemingly every battle of those long thousand years, ameliorated only by fountain tears and Rose’s arms carrying her there, and even then, lingering, lingering…Centuries later, as they track a Corrupted Gem to one of the battlefields that had turned into a graveyard—they find new shards between the strawberries and disused axes every time they come—Garnet remarks: 

“During the War, I wished I could find this place beautiful.” 

And this isn’t new, this sudden slippage into implied _used to_ s, constructed images of days gone by. It didn’t happen _suddenly_ , because Rose doesn’t react except to click her tongue, and if this had been the first time they’d spoken like this, she’d explode into tears, ones that cannot heal anything around them. (At least, if they’d still been at War, they’d have had a chance to _correct_ this, if they just _won_ the next battle. But lately winning doesn’t fix anything, except maybe that it saves a few spare humans.)

Pearl could concoct excuses, could tell herself that Sapphire’s Future Vision must pull Garnet in so many directions at once, and how could she be tethered in the here and now, and she must be confused, must have _meant_ to use the present tense…

But Garnet is never confused. She hasn’t been for millennia now, not since she stopped asking questions. And even if she were, _Pearl_ knows something has changed, had centuries ago. Because, for all intents and purposes, the War is over, ended when Homeworld left. They’d been— _Pearl_ had been—living in freedom for centuries, too. And hadn’t that always been the goal? What they fought for? What Pearl had died for over and over and over again for a thousand years? And they had _done_ it. It was—is— _done_ …

And yet…

If the War is in the past, Pearl wishes she could feel like they’d _won_.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! I love comments!


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